International Section:
Khosro Sinaei
I.R.Iran
Khosrow Sinai (born 1941, Sari) studied architecture at the Technical University in Vienna and simultaneously music composition at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. After that, he began to study film making at the same academy. In 1967, he graduated in film and TV directing and script writing. Then, he returned to Iran and started his activities at the Ministry of Culture and Arts as a filmmaker and at National Iranian TV as a scriptwriter, director, film music composer and editor. He also has been a lecturer at several film academies and member of festival juries in domestic and international festivals. He was awarded “the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland” in 2008 and Order of “Gloria Artist” from Polish Ministry of Culture in 2010 for the long documentary “The Lost Requiem” about the Polish refugees who entered Iran during WWII.
2016 is the 50th anniversary of his continuous activities with over110 Films (short and long feature films, documentary and docudrama).
Julliette Duret
Belgium
She studied economics at the “Université Libre de Bruxelles” and graduated from EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneur) in 2001.
Since August 2006, she has been working as the coordinator of the Young Cinema Department of the Center for Fine Arts in Brussels–BOZAR. She is in charge of the co-production with the Royal Film Archive (CINEMATEK, Brussels), the British Council, the Goethe Institute, la Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Belgian distributors, producers and other cultural institutions and festivals.
Member of European Film Academy (European Prize) since 2006.
Participating in different film festivals as a jury like Oberhausen; Barcelona; Mannheim Heidelberg; Brussels Short Film Festival; Nikon Short Film Festival.
Anna Henckel
Germany
She is a short film maker and does video installations for stage.
She teaches at HTW (University of Applied Sciences in Berlin), Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, and holds workshops with kids and teenagers together with the Berlin Philharmonic.
She works at several film festivals in different positions:
Member of the jury at the Film Festivals: Curtas Vila do Conde 2014; Milano Film Festival 2013; Kurzfilmfest Dresden 2011; Achtung Berlin 2008 and Sehsüchte Potsdam 1999.
Curator of Berlinale Shorts, Kassel Documentary Film, Video Festival and Zebra Poetry Film Festival.
Shubhra Gupta
India
Shubhra Gupta is a senior columnist and film critic at The Indian Express. She has written a widely-read and respected weekly review column in the Express for over 20 years.
Amongst the several success she has achieved, being a member of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is the most outstanding one.
She has travelled extensively within and outside India to cover film festivals. These include International Film Festivals of London, Nantes, Bangkok and Damascus. She was at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in 2012 as part of the delegation of senior Indian media-persons. She has also been covering the International Film Festivals of India since the early 90s. In 2016, she was part of a prestigious group of invited delegates from around the world to experience the Berlinale, the International Film Festival in Berlin.
She has served on selection panels and juries on the Panorama and the International film sections of IFFI (International Film Festival of India) for several years.
Jukka Pekka Lakso
Finland
Jukka-Pekka Laakso (born 1959) is the Festival Director and President of the Board of Directors of the Tampere Film Festival, Finland. He worked for the festival already in the early 80s in an operational capacity, and has been involved with the selection and programming since 2000, taking up the directorship in 2002. As a festival director he shares responsibility for strategic planning and programming with a co-director. Tampere Film Festival is an Oscar Qualifying Short Film Festival.
Jukka-Pekka Laakso acts also as the Executive Director for the Pirkanmaa Film Center, a local film centre in Tampere, since 1998. The film centre is a non-profit organisation which runs an art-house cinema, distributes films in Finland and works extensively in media education. He has also worked as a freelance film critic for radio and magazines.
Jukka-Pekka Laakso is a member of the National Film Council of Finland and European Film Academy and has been a jury member at Kinodot competition 2013.
National Section:
Akbar Alemi
Born in 1945, Ahvaz
Associate Professor of Cinema & TV – Author and Film Critic in TV.
Director & Writer of many documentaries in different versions.
Professional Photographer.
Member of the juries at international festivals.
Mohammad Reza Honarmand
Born: 1953/ Tehran
Education: Telecommunications Engineering, Naval College, as well as Honorary Art Degree
Works:
Films including “Badger”, “The Bells”, “Footprints on the Sand”, “The Visit”, “Thief of Dolls”, “The Wrong Man”, “The Mummy 3”, “Baby I’m not Cook”, as well as TV series including “The Death of Another Person”, “Cactus” trilogy , “Under the Knife”, and “Ashpaz Bashi”.
Seyed Reza MirKarimi
Director, scriptwriter, producer
Born in 1966, Tehran
BA in Graphics, The fine art University, Tehran
Filmography:
Director of the short films including “For Him”, “A Rainy Day,” The Rooster”.
Director of the feature films including “The Child and The Soldier”, “Under The
Moon Light”, “There is a Light on Here”, “So Close-So Far” ,”As Simple As That”,
“a Cube of Sugar” and “Today”.
Awards:
Best Screenplay, Asia-Pacific Film Festival, 2001
Silber Ballon Award, Festival des 3 Continents, Nantes, France, 2000
Critics Week Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival, 2001
Best Director Award, as well as Special Jury Prize, Tokyo International Film Festival, 2001
Crystal Simorgh, Competition of Asian Cinema, as well as Crystal Simorgh, National Competition – Best Director, Fajr Film Festival, 2008
Special Jury Prize, Asia-Pacific Film Festival, 2003
Special Jury Prize,3rd Bally Film Festival, Indonesia, 2005
Golden St. George, 30th Moscow International Film Festival, 2008
Experience:
The supervisor of the Iranian youth Cinema Society ,Zanjan office
1992-1990
Mohsen Amir Youssefi
Born: 1951/ Abadan
Education: Graduated in Mathematics
Producer, writer, as well as director
Works:
Short films including “Nader, the Child of Sword”, “The Father and The Son”, and “Cravan” and feature films including “The Bitter Sleep”, “Atashkar”, “Lovely Trashes”. Documentaries including “Kahrizak” and “Four Glance”.
Awards:
First Prize ,Festival of Nations, Austria, Grand Prize, Obon Festival, France, Special Prize of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, France, Golden Camera Award, Cannes Film Festival, Thessaloniki, Festival Award, Greece, Special Award of Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata, Argentina, Fédération International des Critiques Award, Genève, Suisse, Best Screenplay Award, Central Council of Iranian Cinema Scriptwriters Association, Innovation in Cinema Award, Montreal Film Festival, Best Announce Award, Fajr International Film Festival, Best Film Award, Tehran International Short Film Festival and others.
Davood Khayyam
Born:1983/ Mashhad
MA in Cinema/ Directing /Soore University
Writer and director of the short films including “The Aquarium”, “Minor Roads”,“Chelleh”, as well as “Mohey” as a feature film.
Awards:
-Best Fiction Film Award, Khorshid Independent Short Film Festival (Fourth Edition)
-Best Fiction Film Award and Best Director Award for “Chelleh”, Tehran International Short Film Festival (Thirty-second Edition)
Special Jury Prize for Best Film and Best Director, Kish Film Festival (First Edition)